Texas Declaration of Independence, Original Manuscript, March 2, 1836

Page 2

central military despotism, in which
every interest is disregarded but that
of the army and the priesthood, both
the eternal enemies of civil liberty, the
everready minions of power, and the
usual instruments of tyrants. When,
long after the spirit of the constitu-
tion has departed, moderation is
at length so far lost by those in pow-
er, that even the semblance of freedom
is removed, and the forms themselves
of the constitution discontinued, and
so far from their petitions and rem-
onstrances being regarded, the agents
who bear them are thrown into dungeons,
and mercenary armies sent forth to
force a new government upon them
at the point of the bayonet. When,
in consequence of such acts of malfea-
sance and abdication on the part
of the government, anarchy pre-
vails, and civil society is dissolved
into its original elements. In
such a crisis, the first law of nature,
the right of self-preservation, the
inherent and inalienable rights of
the people to appeal to first princi